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Walldorf (dpa) - After a good start to the year, the software company SAP is a little more optimistic and is raising the outlook for 2021.

"We are seeing very strong growth in all of our applications and are only just beginning," said board spokesman Christian Klein on Tuesday evening in Walldorf.

The enterprise software provider announced that cloud and software revenues are likely to reach EUR 23.4 to 23.8 (2020: 23.2) billion, adjusted for currency effects.

The group is thus increasing the forecast given at the beginning of March at the lower end of the range by 100 million euros.

The operating result, however, should continue to be between 7.8 and 8.2 billion euros.

It was very well received on the stock exchange.

The share was on Wednesday morning after a price jump Dax front runner.

However, the condition for the forecast is that the corona crisis will subside and that global demand will improve in the second half of the year, emphasized SAP.

Among other things, SAP benefits from advancing digitization.

"We had the highest growth in incoming orders for the cloud business and software licenses in five years," said CFO Luka Mucic.

In the first quarter, new cloud business in particular drove expectations upwards, with currency-adjusted sales increasing by 13 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

The license business also posted a currency-adjusted increase of 11 percent.

The cloud and software revenues rose currency-adjusted by only six percent to 5.43 billion euros.

SAP referred to the decline in service revenues from the sale of the SAP Digital Interconnect communications unit.

According to preliminary figures, the operating result increased by almost a quarter to 1.74 billion euros after adjusting for currency effects.

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Quarterly sales climbed currency-adjusted by two percent to 6.35 billion euros.

The bottom line was a profit of a little more than a billion euros and thus around a third more than a year earlier.

According to the information, the corona pandemic played a large part in the growth in operating profit: Last year, SAP saved around 36 million euros - for example through fewer business trips, lower building costs and virtual events.

According to SAP, the cloud business should more than double in the medium term.

As targeted at the beginning of March, the board of directors is assuming revenues of more than 22 billion euros for 2025.

Overall, sales are expected to be over 36 billion euros.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210414-99-198453 / 2

Communication from SAP